Of Merchants, Bandits, and Shepherds
by Moodiness97
Summary: In which Anna the Merchant meets the Shepherds and discovers there are people in the world quirkier than her. This makes her quite happy, but not as much as the gold in the bandit fort she and Gaius are pillaging. After clearing out the fort with the Shepherds, Anna gets a wonderful idea. After all, every army needs someone to do inventory, and she's a whiz at counting vulneraries.


**AN: Why? Because I can.**

**No, seriously. I don't really have a particular reason for writing this other than I LOOOOVE **_**Fire Emblem: Awakeing, **_**and I LOOOOVE the character of Anna. Well, I also love the character of Gauis. And Tharja. And Inigo. And Gerome. And Sumia. And… well, EVERYONE IN THAT ENTIRE GAME. Except perhaps Vaike. He annoys me.**

**So what is this atrocity that you've had the misfortune of stumbling across? Well, this is my version of the night Anna met the Shepherds: the paralogue known in the game as "Anna the Merchant".**

**I'm going to state flat out right now that I'm not committing to any more chapters. For all I know, this is a total oneshot. HOWEVER, for all I know, this could wind up being a long term thing, perhaps the whole game from this point on from Anna's perspective. Who knows?**

**Anyway, I hope if you read it, you enjoy it. It was quite fun to write.**

It was a _great_ day. It was a fantastic, amazing, absolutely wonderful day. Why? Because Anna had just obtained Leif's Blade, an interesting little enchanted sword that produced genuine gold from thin air. How a horde of brigands had come across something so ridiculously valuable was beyond her, but it didn't matter.

Now, all she had to do was to make it out of the bandit's fort without being seen.

She closed the chest gingerly, not wanting to make even the slightest noise. If Vincent found her here, he probably wouldn't have any kind words for her. He'd been especially violent ever since his twin brother, Victor had been killed a couple months ago. Not that she was scared of that ax-wielding moron, but he had a whole lot of barbarians who did what he told them.

Standing quickly, she brushed off her clothes, which were slowly being covered in a thick layer of grime. Saturated with dust, the air itself tasted disgusting, and she made a point of breathing through her nose. Of course, this only gave her even more motivation to leave as quickly as possible. But she was standing in the middle of the bandit's stash, and the clumsily locked chests tempted her _so_ strongly.

She listened carefully for a second. The sounds of a wild night of drinking and general rowdiness reached her all the way across the fort complex. Not a single bandit would think of leaving the festivities tonight. If there was one thing all brigands loved, it was getting drunk and then going to town and causing an insane ruckus. The only possible reason they might come in this room was to get more mead, the barrels were stored right near the door for easy access. That meant as long as she stayed in the back of the room, in the shadows…

"I don't think it would do any harm," she breathed as she slipped Leif's Blade into her belt next to the steal sword she always kept on her. Sauntering over the chests deepest in the room, she pulled out a lock pick and set to work.

Originally, the plan had been to get the sword and the sword only, but honestly, there was so much valuable merchandise in here and she could make a killing on the contents of a single chest. _Alright,_ she thought, _just one. Then, go._

The lock was being stubborn, though, and the lack of light in the room didn't help either. She decided it would be easier and more prudent to simply steal the whole chest. It was going to be tricky, though. Lifting something of this size that was made of iron would be impossible, so she'd have to drag it. And she'd have to do that without getting caught.

Pulling on the chest's handle elicited an involuntarily grunt. _Better be quiet,_ she thought,_ Quiet is the key._ Thankfully, the ground was straw and earth; had it been stone, the racket caused would have given her away almost instantly. More prepared this time for the exertion, she tugged again, and was rewarded with the chest sliding toward her.

_Alright!_ she thought happily as she continued to drag it across the floor. Now that she had pulled it out of where it had sat for who knew how long, it moved much more easily.

Hidden in the woods, her wagon was waiting for her. All she had to do was figure out a way to get the chest over the fort walls…

Outside the store room was an open yard, and the shack the ruffians used as a mess hall was on the far side. The stronghold was fairly simple, just a few ramshackle buildings with a rectangular perimeter marked by stone walls. The complex used to be larger when it was manned by a Feroxi army unit, but after all the soldiers had left, the bandits had moved in and remodeled, leaving a large portion of the fort to fall into disrepair.

Anna headed for the nearest wall, knowing even the barbarians were smart enough to post sentries at the actual gate.

She'd almost made it when a voice stopped her in her tracks.

"You there!"

Releasing her load and spinning around, she looked up and saw Vincent, the infamous leader of the resident brigands. He was standing atop the wall she had been about to reach.

"I knew someone was always sneaking in here and taking things, and I also knew you wouldn't pass up the opportunity to steal our loot while we were distracted. Clever, yes?" Vincent smiled, revealing a surprisingly white set of teeth.

"Well, you got me!" Anna said, drawing her old sword from its sheath and backing up. Forget the chest; she'd gotten what she came for in the first place. There was no reason to stick around and try to fight this guy. She'd never win in a head on fight, anyway.

The barbarian leader continued, his voice rising. "You! We have business, you and I, and I aim to settle the debt! Victor will be avenged today!"

He seemed to be under the impression that Anna had somehow been a factor in his brother's death, which didn't bode well for her.

Leaping from the wall and landing in the yard, Vincent hefted his axe onto his shoulder. He was a repulsive man, with strangely bloated lips and brown hair cut in an unnatural pattern that left a single strip of hair on his otherwise bald held. The moment he landed, other goons emerged from behind nearby buildings.

Continuing to step backward, Anna replied, "Oh, dear. Have we met?"

Behind her, a telltale crunch revealed that someone was sneaking up in her blind spot, trying to use the element of surprise. Without turning, she twisted her sword in her hands, adjusting their grip on the hilt.

His lips twisting into a snarl, Vincent replied, "Playing dumb won't save you, girly. The gold you net from the slavers will build Victor the finest grave in the land!"

Anna smiled mischievously, readying herself. "Careful, love. Prices aren't the only thing I can cut in half."

Spinning around suddenly, she stabbed with her blade, and as luck would have it, the ruffian behind her hadn't been wearing much armor. Wounded in the right shoulder, he collapsed to the ground with a muffled yelp. Without hesitating, she sprang over him, pushing off his back with her foot. As she was about to round the corner of the loot shed, she heard the unmistakable whistle of an axe being thrown. She ducked and spun, and the projectile sailed past her, narrowly missing.

_Tonight did not go as planned_, she thought unhappily, heading for the main entrance to the yard. More bandits were pouring from the mess hall, but most of them looked fairly drunk. They had more chance of hurting themselves than catching her.

In the entrance to the complex stood two very confused guards, drawing their weapons slowly. She made a beeline straight for them, hoping to get by before they'd fully assessed the situation and realized what was happening. From behind her she came the angry shouting of Vincent. "Stop her!" he cried. "I need to teach her a lesson!"

_Goodness, he's persistent_.

The guards recognized what was going on, but Anna didn't slow. Instead, she leapt at them, stabbing quickly at the one nearest her. He jumped back and parried easily, but in the process he stepped on his companion's foot, sending them both stumbling away. Anna rocketed by, glancing to check on her pursuers. They were gaining, but only because it was flat, straight line she was running. The moment she was outside of the compound and the terrain became uneven, the advantage would be hers.

Another of Vincent's axes whizzed through the air, but it missed by a mile. _Trying to throw when running—that's not very smart. Of course, if I had a thousand gold pieces for every smart thing Vincent has done in his life, I'd be dirt poor._

Dashing through the gate, she found herself in the abandoned section of the old fort, where walls, roofs, and cobblestone paths had been left to deteriorate in the harsh Feroxi elements. Most of the rubble here only stood a couple feet tall at most, and Anna vaulted over the majority of the obstacles easily. Within moments she had left the oafish barbarians in the dust as they struggled over the debris. Once she got to her wagon, which was about a quarter mile up the road, she'd be home free.

_So why do I get the feeling that this was way too easy?_

Running parallel to the road, Anna reached the end of the ruins and entered the forest. The trees were dense and the undergrowth was thick, which would help her even more than the ruined walls had. The mental image of the buffoons floundering their way through the brambles and poison ivy brought a smile to her lips.

The sounds of pursuit were quite distant now, and it was a good thing, too—she was getting a bit winded. _I need to start exercising more_… she decided. _Or, maybe there's some kind of strength tonic I can get my hands on. Hmm… I'm sure those bandits have something like that. I'll have to pay them another visit someday._

The back of her wagon came into view, and Anna felt a great rush of relief and pumped her legs as hard as she could. Running around it, she launched herself into the driver's seat. It was only then that she noticed her horse was missing.

"What gives?" she exclaimed aloud before seeing something in the corner of her eye. Startled, she turned to behold a bandit climbing into the seat, reaching for her. _There's no way they caught up that fast!_ she thought, scrambling off the bench and onto the ground. She nearly landed on top of another brigand who had been waiting on the other side of the wagon. They had taken her completely off guard, and she didn't have time to do much more than yelp before they both had her by one arm.

"Let go of me!" she cried defiantly, feeling a little pathetic at this point.

"Yeah, right. We'll be sure to do that," one of her captors said. "Pretty smart, huh? Vincent told us to comb the woods for your wagon. He figured you'd be dropping by tonight to make off with our loot."

Roughly, they started to drag her back to the fort.

At this point, some fast talking was her best bet. "You know, boys, if you take me back to that greedy old Vincent, he'll hog most of the money he nets from the slavers. But if you tell him I got away, I might be able to cut you a special deal…" She winked at the one on her right, hoping to make herself as mischievous as possible.

He shook his head. "Sorry, but I'm not into redheads, and Brint here's a former priest. Believes in saving himself and whatnot. Gods, why would anyone put themselves through that?"

Anna sputtered ineloquently. "Wait, what? That's _not_ what I was talking about, you sick pervert! What sort of loose woman do you take me for?"

The man raised an eyebrow at her and snickered.

"Don't answer that! Anyway, I was talking about gold! I have piles of it! More than you all have in that entire fort!"

"Then wide you try to break in all sneaky and take ours, if your hoard's so blasted full?"

"Because it's never too early to retire!" Anna replied cheekily. "Unless, of course, you can't afford it. I can help you afford it. Add some extra years of carefree relaxation to your life. So, what d'ya say? We got a deal?"

"Of course! I'll just let you go, so that you can leave me here gold-less and prisoner-less. You'd probably figured out a way to steal the clothes off my back, while you were at it. Hah! What kinda' mud-brained idiot do you think I am, lady?"

Anna raised one eyebrow at him smugly.

"Don't answer that! Gods, you're not helping your cause being a smart-aleck like that."

"It takes one to know one," Brint muttered so that only Anna could hear. She couldn't help but grin a little, despite her situation. She decided to turn her attention to Brint, instead.

"So, why'd you leave the clergy?" she asked conversationally. Looking down, she noticed he had a medium-sized healing staff strapped in his belt.

He sighed and looked off dreamily into nowhere. "I wanted to see more of the world. I plan on going back one of these days." He shook his head. "Though at this point, I suppose that's nothing more than fool's dream."

"You bet it is," the other ruffian said. "Once a bandit, always a bandit and that whole spiel."

"Ander here wonders why I would ever want to go back," Brint said with a bit of veiled distaste in his voice.

"You know, it wouldn't be that hard to leave if you had plenty of money," Anna said, pressing her earlier point. "And you know Vincent's not going to share. But me, I have money to spare!"

"That's cute," Ander replied. "You made a rhyme. Now stop talking! We're almost there!"

"Are you sure you don't want to reconsider?" Anna said hastily. "I mean, this is gold we're talking about. Not much else that can compete with that!"

"You're definitely right," he agreed, sighing. "But that aged mead we looted from two towns over comes pretty close… Here we are. Hey, knuckleheads! Check this out; we got her!"

The saliva in Anna's throat refused to go down, no matter how many times she swallowed. Thugs started trickling out of the gate to the inner compound, coming to see the new catch. _Gods, help me now. Come on, Anna, girl. Think of something!_

Her heart skipped a beat when Vincent came stomping into her line of sight. "Bring her to me."

Her two captors complied quickly, and she found herself face to face the barbarian.

"I hope you've lived a good life until now," Vincent said, snarling. "Because it's about to be pretty bad for you." He pulled Leif's blade from her belt, and reached for her other sword.

Anna twisted and squirmed, but nothing seemed to help. Having been driven to her last resort, she pushed aside her dignity and kicked Vincent hard in between the legs. He exploded in curses as he stumbled back, knocking over two of his cronies. Despite how amusing this had played out to be, it was only delaying the inevitable. _The gold I wouldn't give for one stupid little miracle,_ she pleaded to the powers that be.

Suddenly, from beside her, Anders shrieked in pain. Letting go of her arm, he collapsed to the ground, and arrow protruding from his shoulder blade.

A thickly accented voice rang out from the direction of the woods. "Oh, ho, ho! The elder spoke truth indeed! There _is_ a damsel, very much in distress!" Feeling Brint release her other arm in surprise, Anna turned to see her glorious rescuer. The sight of a frill-covered dandy met her eyes, but riding a horse out from behind him was a knight in green armor. The frilly one kept speaking in his supercilious manner. "Never fear, fair maiden, for I am he who strides large across history's grand stage, greatest of legends, archest of archers, Vir—"

"We'll save you!" the green knight shouted, interrupting his companion in the climax of the monologue. Looking thoroughly affronted, the archer smoothed his ruffles and casually loaded another arrow, firing it with pinpoint accuracy at Brint. The poor former priest, who had been abandoned when his friends all fled to regroup, screamed and ran as fast as he could. Unfortunately for him, he tripped over some rubble and fell flat on his face. Or perhaps, it was fortunate for him, because the mounted knight, seeing this, turned away to face some different threat.

Which, was, in this case, enemy archers. Pointing their arrows straight at him and Anna.

Before they could fire, however, several rather large bolts of lightning flew into them. _Mages, too? They brought the big guns. And just to save little ol' me? I'm flattered._ She smirked, glancing at the entrance to the fort where Vincent and the others, save Brint, had fled. Even the wounded Ander had made it all the way inside, but the clumsy priest still lay on the ground, quaking with fear. Anna strolled over and tapped him on the shoulder. He looked up fearfully.

"Say, Brint? I'd say this is a pretty good time to go join the nearest priesthood. I think Vincent is about to have some staffing cuts." She deftly removed his healing staff from his belt. "Consider this my fee."

Eyes wide, the terrified man nodded, before getting to his feet and heading for the woods.

"You let him go?" the knight said, riding up.

"He struck me as a decent sort of fellow. Just down on his luck," Anna replied. "I can't help but empathize. I've always been lucky, so I feel kind of bad for people who aren't."

"I'll say. We showed up just in time. If that isn't luck, I don't know what is." He shook his head. "You seemed pretty calm for someone who nearly got skewered."

"Oh, they weren't going to kill me. I'm too valuable. I would have just been sold into slavery. But I'm still grateful for your help; I'll have to find some way to pay you back."

A new voice came from Anna's left. "Is everyone okay?"

She turned to see a man walk up in a black coat walk up, followed by three mages. One was short, his voluminous hat more impressive than his stature. Another was a rather tall, rigid woman with glasses and piercing eyes. The third one was also a woman, medium in height, with straight black hair and a—well, honestly, it was fairly inappropriate—a "revealing" gossamer robe. The man leading them was white-headed, but he looked no older than twenty-five.

_In fact, he's rather handsome_, she thought, smiling to herself.

His snowy hair was a bit long and messy, but his face was pleasant enough gazing territory. His build wasn't anything impressive, but it wasn't puny either.

Intrigued, Anna put her hand on her hip, watching them approach.

To her surprise, still another person emerged from the woods, this one mounted on a horse. It was a girl no older than seventeen or so, and her blonde hair was done up in some elaborate hairdo that looked complicated while still allowing the majority of it to fall past her shoulders in perfect golden locks. She came across as the sort that had mountains of money, but never earned a penny of it. Anna took to an immediate dislike, even though she knew this was rather unfair.

When no one answered his question, the white-haired man said, "I'll take that as a yes."

Anna decided to speak up. "Hello there, handsome. Am I being rescued?"

He grinned in response. "Well that was the plan, but you seem to be holding up just fine. Can you still fight?"

"I could stand to open up a few more rogues. Or locks, for that matter."

The man's eyebrows shot up in interest. "A thief, is it?"

Slightly offended, Anna replied, "Locksmith, thank you very much. But yes. Door or chest, I'll have it smiling wide in a trice. And it looks like these bandits have quite the hoard built up."

Her newfound friend smiled. "Huh… Well, then, I think we're in business."

"So what's the plan?" the mounted knight asked. He said this to the white-haired man, who apparently functioned as the group's leader.

"Well, first we need to wait for Cordelia to get back from scouting out the place. She'll tell us approximately how many there are, and such. Then, I'll give the signal to the other group to go over the back wall." As he spoke, the black-haired mage slowly edged closer to him, but every time he glanced at her, she looked away. It was more than a little creepy, actually.

"There's a second group?" Anna asked with interest.

"Yes. Really, we're just standing out here as a distraction. As long as we have our mages, they won't try to attack us directly, but they'll still be focusing on us. We won't actually attack until after the other group catches them by surprise. Then, we move in."

The sound of beating wings hit them from above, and the next moment a pegasus gracefully descended from the sky above. Mounted on the beast's bag was a beautiful knight with long red hair that was fierier than Anna's. She held a long spear in one hand always at the ready, even while she promptly gave the leader her report. "There are about twenty-five armed men in the fort, Robin. I couldn't get a more accurate count for fear of their archers. I'm sorry that—"

"It's fine, Cordelia," the white-haired man, apparently named Robin, said. "Relay this information to the other group, also. Tell them I want Sully, Lon'qu and Gregor to go in first in order to draw the enemy out, then Nowi and Panne to really let them have it, then Donny, Vaike and Gaius last."

She frowned. "Vaike won't like that plan at all."

Robin chuckled, saying, "I'll start putting him at the front the moment he starts wearing some actual armor. And if he gives any lip about it, I've told Sully she has permission to get him in line forcefully."

Anna heard the frilly archer mutter darkly, "My, let us hope she leaves him in one piece."

"Or, better yet, let's not," the blonde said, and Anna wasn't sure if she was joking.

Cordelia and her pegasus shot back into the air, leaving the eight others in the middle of the ruins. Anna glanced around, amazed the bandits were actually smart enough not to attack.

"Won't she attract attention to where the others are hiding?" the youngest of the three mages asked worriedly.

Robin shook his head. "She's been around long enough to know how to give enemy sentries the slip. She'll go around in the woods and stay out of their range of sight."

"How do we know when to attack?" the mage asked.

"Oh… we'll know," their leader replied, smirking.

A few minutes later, sounds of commotion inside the fort began to ring out. Anna readied herself, but Robin said, "Not yet." All Anna could discern from the dissonant clamber was the sound of a women's voice carrying more loudly than the rest.

"There's Sully," the green knight said, chuckling to himself.

"A true Amazon," the archer added.

"Hmph!" inserted the stuffy blonde girl.

A large roar made Anna jump, but the others seemed unfazed. Confused, she looked to Robin for an explanation, but he was concentrating on the battle. Instead, the green knight answered, "That's just Nowi, a manakete. She's usually not scary at all."

Anna nodded, but the mage in the revealing outfit was distracting her. The caster—a dark mage, by the look of her—had inched her way to Robin's side so that she was just barely touching him. Robin, who was engrossed in the sounds of battle, didn't notice. This made the dark mage very happy.

"We're missing all the killing," she said darkly.

Robin jumped, surprised by the dark mage's sudden appearance so close to him. "Tharja! How long have you been standing there?"

"Not long."

"Er… okay. Well, I hear Vaike's battle cry, so I suppose we can charge in now to provide some relief."

Tharja giggled, and it was quite probably the scariest thing Anna had ever heard. "Finally," the woman said, shuffling forward. "This ought to be entertaining."

Not surprisingly, this display of absolute… strangeness left Anna speechless. The knight leaned over and whispered in her ear, "Tharja's the type of person you don't want to annoy. Gods help if you get her real and truly angry."

"Noted," Anna replied.

Robin scratched his head. "Um… I was going to organize a strategy, but, uh… You all just cover Tharja while she does her thing, and we'll go from there." Everyone nodded, and the two mages and archer ready themselves to shoot anything that move.

The dark mage had walked to the entrance of the compound and was chanting an unpleasant-sounding incantation. Her syllables came out a bit like she was hacking something up from the back of her throat. Whatever she was saying worked, though, because there was a small explosion, punctuated by several screams.

Walking up besides her, Robin said, "You didn't… hit any of our own people, did you?"

"No. I'm not incompetent."

"I'm not suggesting you are."

"Good. You should know by now I can _kill_ correctly." After that morbid conversation, Tharja and Robin strolled through the gate. The knight quickly followed them, brandishing a sword. The two mages went next, followed by the archer. Suddenly, it was just Anna and the snobbish-looking girl, who turned and said, "If I'm not mistaken, I see you have a healing staff there. Are you well-versed in the arts of healing?"

"I know some basic healing and mending spells," Anna responded, experiencing an irrational defensiveness which she tried hard to mask. "But that's all."

"Well," the blonde said distastefully, "I suppose inadequate knowledge is slightly less useless than knowing nothing at all."

Quite shocked at the girl's passive-aggressive behavior, Anna hurried inside the compound. The sight of Ander coming in her direction with his arms flailing in panic greeted her, and she stepped to the side, sticking her foot out. He tripped over it, falling to the ground in a heap, and Anna said, "Lie there and hope they just ignore you. These people mean business."

The yard was in a state of absolute chaos. Barbarians were running this way and that, trying to escape the death coming to greet them from every direction. Besides the enormous dragon, Nowi, flinging enemies about like ragdolls, there were several others in Anna's rescue party that caught her eye. One was a short-haired, red-armored knight who was knocking ruffians around twice her size. Another stand out was the… giant rabbit?

Anna did a double take to confirm she really was seeing this. Yes, that definitely was a taguel, a legendary creature that Anna had only read about.

Because her new friends seemed to have everything under control, she decided to visit the bandit's hoard again and see what else she could dig up. As she headed for the storage shack, she heard Vincent's voice roaring above the rest of the chaos. He was pointing his oversized axe at Robin, yelling in challenge. "You stand no chance. I'm a conqueror by name and a conqueror by nature!" He then charged at Robin, yelling, but the more agile man just leapt out of the way, throwing a shot of lightning in retaliation. It hit the brute straight in the chest, but even then, he barely slowed. He turned to press the offensive, but Nowi appeared, swatting him away with one claw. He sailed over Anna's head, landing on Ander and scaring the blonde girl, who had just poked her head into the complex to see what was happening.

Stunned, the girl rode her horse over to where Vincent lay still, on top of a groaning Ander. _Hmph_-ing again, she muttered, "Baseborn troglodyte."

The bandit chief's arm shot out suddenly, making the blonde scream again. Before Anna could intervene, however, the girl walloped him in the head with her sizable healing staff. Groaning, he fell into the haze of unconsciousness, groaning something nonsensical. "I… I see your face, Victor. No… No, wait… That's me."

"You have some impressive arm strength," Anna quipped.

"I will have you know that my arms are delicate and feminine; I do not have any of the horrid muscle it is so unbefitting for women to possess. In this case, gravity did all the work."

Making friends with this girl was going to be difficult, Anna could tell that much. So, going to the bandits' gold cache seemed like a suitable alternative. However, upon arriving, she discovered that someone else was already there, opening one chest after the other with unparalleled skill.

"Not my chests… My gold!" Anna heard herself say aloud.

The thief looked around, and seeing the distraught woman standing there, he said, "Wait. Are you one of the bandits?" By the tone of his voice, Anna could tell he didn't believe it.

"Well, no," she replied. "But I am interested in clearing out their merchandise."

"You a thief?" he asked.

"Skilled locksmith, cutthroat merchant and savvy businesswoman."

The man blinked in bemusement. Anna took in his face: narrow, crafty eyes; the stem of some grain planted in his permanent smirk; and rusty orange hair. He had the air of being around the block a few times. "Whatever floats your boat, Red. Anyway, there're a lot of chests full of goodies here, and this would go a lot faster with two of us."

"Right," Anna said, getting to work.

Between the two of them, they managed to have the entire hoard opened up in no more than ten minutes. If she wasn't careful, Anna was going to go into shock from the sheer number of shiny tidbits twinkling up at her. The other thief, who at some point had mentioned that his name was Gaius, said, "Find anything sweet?"

"Tons of it…" Anna replied breathily, putting her hand to her heart to make sure she was still alive.

"Where?" he asked excitedly.

"Um, everywhere. I'll make a killing on all this stuff!"

"No, I mean actually sweet! Like sugar!"

"This is one of the happiest moments of—wait, what?"

Gaius sighed. "Have you found anything sweet? As in, edible and sugary."

"You mean… candy?"

"Yup. And desserts. And chocolate."

Bewildered, the merchant frowned. "Why would bandits store sweets in their loot? Hang on, why would bandits even have a store of sweets. And most importantly, why would you care more about candy than gold?"

The thief smirked and said, "I'm a man of simple tastes. I won't say no to the gold, but I was going to call dibs on the sweets. Looks like I'll just have to buy my own later."

Who were these people that had rescued her? A prissy blonde brat; a real, live taguel; and a thief who wanted nothing more out of life than sugar… Anna shook her head in amusement. They sounded just like her kind of people. They weren't weird; they were just eccentric. Except for Tharja. She was definitely weird.

Robin poked his head into the storage room casually. "We're pretty much wrapped up out here. Do you two need any help hauling this stuff out?"

"That would be great, love," Anna said, winking.

"Er… right." The white-haired man hurried away, leaving the merchant wondering if she'd made him feel uncomfortable. She snickered to herself.

In a minute, Robin had returned with several other strapping men and one woman, each grabbing a chest and marching off as if they weighed nothing. Turning to Anna, Robin said, "We'll pile them up outside near our caravan. We'll divide up the stuff there."

"Sounds reasonable," Anna said, before he bent over and picked up his own chest. He groaned a little more than some of the others, but he still managed to get it himself. "Wow," Anna said. "All this capable manual labor. If only it was free of charge…"

Beside her, Gaius chuckled.

"What?" she said, glancing at him. You can't lift one by yourself?"

"Yeah, no."

"I bet between the two of us, we can probably manage."

"If you say so, Red," Gaius replied, positioning himself on one side of the box. Anna got on the other end, and together, they heaved the thing off the ground.

"Ugh," Anna said, "What was in this one, anyway?"

"A whole bunch of solid gold bullions."

Perking up a bit when she heard this, Anna said, "Well, I guess I'll manage then."

They shuffled into the yard, where the others were just coming back from the first load. "Wow, Gaius," the woman shouted. The crimson hair on her head stood straight out in various spikes, giving her whole figure a sharp, dangerous look.

_So many redheads here,_ Anna thought.

"Can you handle it?" The woman continued. "Do you need my help?"

"I'm… fine," the thief groaned.

"Oh, good, 'cause I was worried. You look a little ill, Chuckles."

At this, Gaius grunted unpleasantly. The women pestering him broke into a loud guffaw and strode back to the loot shed.

"That's infuriating… Nicknames… are my thing…" He wheezed loudly, and Anna began to fear for his health.

"Maybe we should take a break?" she suggested.

"No! I can… make it… just a little… farther…"

They walked out of the yard into the ruins of the old fort, where several wagons had been pulled up. Next to the caravan, the loot had been stacked in mostly neat piles. Standing over them was the tall female mage, who appeared to be making an inventory. _Oh, I like the way she thinks_.

Coming to a halt next to the other chests, Gaius practically dropped his load. Anna set her end down a little more carefully, scooting it so that it sat even with the others. She tried to say something to Gaius, but he had already hurried away, obviously too embarrassed to stick around. _For someone so exhausted, he sure can move_.

Robin came out of the fort, carrying another load. He was followed by the same group as last time. The woman called out to Anna, "Did Gaius decide to let the real soldiers handle it?"

"Well, you could put it that way…" Anna said hesitantly.

The other woman shook with laughter again, the men around her ginning.

Dropping his load and exhaling with relief, Robin said to Anna, "I think that's the last of it."

Anna smiled. "Thanks for your help. The name's Anna. Some folks like to call me the Secret Seller."

Robin nodded, and then said something utterly perplexing. "Yes, I remember you."

Surprised, the merchant replied. "Oh?" Wondering how she could have forgotten meeting these people like these before, she concentrated hard on his face. "…Mmm, I'm afraid I'm drawing a blank."

The man's smile dropped slightly, and a look of apology covered his face instead. "Huh? Oh, then I must be… I'm sorry. I thought you… Wait, what am I saying?" His brow furrowed, and he pointed at her. "I know we helped you! I'm sure of it!"

A sudden realization came to Anna. She giggled, saying, "Oh! Hee hee! You must have met one of my sisters!" Anna came from a large family. A very large family. An idea began to hatch in her mind.

Robin's eyes widened in shock. "Sisters? Gods, you look identical!"

"Yes, there's a strong family resemblance. Oh, and we're all merchants!"

Disbelief was apparent on the man's face. "…With the same name?"

"Yes, actually! That's part of the secret!"

Apparently at a loss for things to say, Robin could only get out, "Your family gatherings must be chaotic."

"True, but aren't everyone's?" The poor fellow could only nod numbly in response. "Still, I can't just send you on your way after helping two of us. So let me come along and aid you in return. I can be quite useful. You'll never make a loss with me in tow – I guarantee it!"

He mulled this over. "Er… You want to come with us?"

"Yes!" she replied innocently.

"Why?"

She put her finger on her chin, pretending to think about it. "Do I really need a reason, handsome?" she said, winking.

He seemed to give up and shrug, as if to say, "Well, come on then."

No need to tell him the real reason—that traveling with a group like this entailed plenty of opportunities to make a financial killing. _This is going to be so, so much fun,_ she thought mischievously. It really was a fantastic, amazing, absolutely wonderful day.

**Second AN: Well, if you made it through, congratulations. Yes, before you say anything, I realize in the game it was Chrom who had the conversations with Anna. But also, in the game, this paralogue opens up right after Emmeryn's death, and I imagine canonically, since the bandit's fort is in Ferox, this paralogue would probably take place in between chapters 10 and 11. I have no evidence to support my conclusion, but hey, that's what I'm going with. Anyway, since Chrom's in a state of Heroic BOSD at this point, I figure he'd have Robin do something like take the Shepherds out on a patrol to get everyone's mind off Emmeryn. On this patrol, they happen to stumble across a merchant who just saw Anna being dragged away from her wagon by Brint and Ander. The rest, my friends, is history.**


End file.
